LePage is promoting his deputy legal counsel, Michael Cianchette, to chief legal counsel, and he’s promoting Carlisle McLean, who has served as natural resources policy adviser, to general counsel and senior natural resources policy adviser.

Cianchette, who has worked in LePage’s office since January 2011, earned both a law degree and a master’s in business administration from Suffolk University in 2010. A member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, Cianchette served under Billings as deputy counsel until Billing’s departure. He holds a bachelor’s from Boston College.

McLean has been LePage’s liaison to the state’s natural resource agencies since she joined the governor’s staff in February 2011. Before that, she spent six years working in the Environmental Law and Climate Strategy groups at the law firm Preti Flaherty.

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At Preti Flaherty, McLean represented clients before the Land Use Regulation Commission, the Board of Environmental Protection and other state agencies. Her clients included private developers, including wind developers.

She holds a law degree from Pace University, a master’s in environmental management from Yale University and a bachelor’s from Bates College.

Both McLean and Cianchette live in Cumberland.

“Both individuals have been tremendous assets on staff, and I have the utmost confidence that each will serve the people of Maine extraordinarily well in their new capacities,” LePage said in a statement.